To those of us outside the Republican Party it comes as no surprise that health care is at the top of the minds of the majority of Americans. So when the protection of preexisting conditions became a focal point of a number of statewide races at the midterms in Wisconsin, the GOP was unprepared for the reaction.

So what exactly is Governor Scott Walker’s preexisting condition? His total and continuous opposition to the Affordable Care Act and it’s most popular provision, the requirement that insurance companies cover Americans with preexisting conditions.

Since day one Gov. Walker has opposed the Affordable Care Act.

Gov. Walker has refused to accept the Medicaid upgrade for the state of Wisconsin and cost Wisconsin taxpayers $1 billion in the process.

During his short lived campaign for president, Gov. Walker was adamantly opposed to the Affordable Care Act and was solidly in the repeal and replace camp.

Governor Walker encouraged Wisconsin’s Attorney General Brad Schimel to join the Texas law suit to have the Affordable Care Act including the preexisting condition provision declared unconstitutional. Wisconsin continues to be a party to that lawsuit today.

During the current campaign as his Democratic opponent for governor, Tony Evers, started to make hay with supporting the expanded Medicaid program and support for preexisting conditions, the governor started to say he would protect them too. How he would do that or How he would pay for that were missing from the discussion.

And just a few days before the election, Governor Walker has said, no matter what happens in Washington, no matter what happens with the Texas lawsuit, Wisconsin will protect preexisting conditions by codifying the entire preexisting portion of the Affordable Care Act as Wisconsin law. I am not sure that that is even possible if the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature would be willing to go along with it…and all indications are that they won’t support that.

“People want to know, they want to hear it directly from me that we will always cover people with pre-existing conditions,” Walker told reporters during a campaign event at Mathison Manufacturing in Waukesha. “No matter what happens in the courts or in the Congress, in Wisconsin we’ll codify that, the exact same language that’s in the Affordable Care Act, we’ll make sure that everyone living with pre-existing conditions is covered here in the state.”

It marked a dramatic new course for Walker, who authorized Attorney General Brad Schimel to file a lawsuit this year seeking to end Obamacare. The case is pending in federal court in Texas.

Passing such sweeping protections for those with pre-existing conditions would be nearly impossible in the Republican-controlled state Legislature. The Assembly this year approved a bill to require coverage of pre-existing conditions, but it did not go as far as the Affordable Care Act. GOP Senate leaders could not muster the votes for that measure and it would be even harder to get them for a bill that went as far as what Walker proposed Thursday.

Hey governor…you can’t have it both ways…you can’t be for and against…unless you take definitive action to move in one direction or the other…you are lying and deceiving the fine people of Wisconsin!

“Actions speak louder than words, folks,” Evers said in a statement. “Politicians like Scott Walker are always talking out of both sides of their mouth and telling last-minute lies like this. The fact is that Scott Walker spent the past eight years trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its protections for pre-existing conditions. I’m going to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and Wisconsinites trust me on this issue because that’s what I’ve said since day one.”

I don’t think there is any insurer who can cover Governor Scott Walker’s preexisting condition. Wisconsin: Vote him out!